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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

We're back for another weekend roundup. We're also reporting on the latest news from the Middle East, where Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel with an unprecedented infiltration of an unknown number of gunmen from Gaza. It is one of the most serious escalations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years. "We are in a war and we will win it," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

We had to build the wall in order to stop it

The money: The U.S. will add sections to its border wall to stave off record migrant crossings from Mexico, carrying forward a signature policy of former President Trump. President Biden said after taking office that "no more American taxpayer dollars" would go toward the wall, but that this money was allocated during Trump's presidency and had to be spent.
The neighbors: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the news a step backward as he met top U.S. officials in Mexico City, adding that he thinks nothing will come of it. On the other side of the Atlantic, the EU got a symbolic taste from Poland and Hungary of how implementing its own plans to handle migrant arrivals could work out.

Those are some hot U.S. jobs numbers

We work hard for the money: Employment increased by the most in eight months in September, with nonfarm payrolls numbers doubling expectations. Persistent strength in the labor market could give the Federal Reserve reason to raise interest rates again. This might not happen as the latest numbers show wage growth cooled, but we should know more once inflation data arrive next week.
If bonds are your thing: U.S. Treasury yields are hitting 16-year highs as investors bet that high interest rates will slow growth and dampen the appetite for riskier assets. Friday's job numbers suggest that this trend could continue. That's bad news for investors as well as anyone who considers home mortgage rates to be scandalous these days.

'Half the village is gone'

52 killed: Dozens of people met in a café in the village of Hroza for a meal to honor a Ukrainian soldier who died in the war against Russia. Then a missile struck. It was one of the most deadly attacks during 20 months of fighting. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told European leaders that other countries could expect the same treatment if the continent wavers in its support for Ukraine.
Preparing for winter: Thousands of engineers toiled over the summer to repair broken equipment, but there has been neither the money nor the time to fix an energy system battered by Russian drones and missiles. Millions of Ukrainians can expect more long nights without light, heat or water.

A warning system that wasn't ready

Sikkim: Scientists and government authorities were working on an early-warning system for glacial floods at a Himalayan lake in northeast India when it broke its banks and killed more than 40 people. It was the latest extreme-weather event in the Himalayas attributed to climate change.
No safe place: Many more people will face the threat of contracting dengue fever in the southern U.S. and Europe as well as new parts of Africa as temperatures change and mosquitoes that carry the infection spread. And the U.N.'s fund for helping vulnerable countries deal with climate issues fell short of its fundraising target after wealthy nations failed to pay in.

Before I forget…

Our Saturday World News podcast just came out. Our correspondents tell us what's at stake at the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Marrakech. It's worth a listen.

The UAW held off on additional strikes against Detroit Three auto plants, citing progress in talks.

The EU is trying to revive peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan after the latter seized control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, prompting more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.

Pope Francis appeared to leave open the possibility of priests blessing same-sex couples... with conditions.

A group of women in Greenland are seeking compensation from Denmark over an involuntary birth-control campaign launched in the 1960s. About 4,500 women and girls as young as 13 were fitted with IUDs without their knowledge or consent.

It took the better part of a century, but Romania decided to teach Jewish history and the Holocaust in schools.

Wegovy: It's working out well for many of its users, not to mention Novo Nordisk's home country Denmark, but how's your stock portfolio going to look if people start eating less and you own shares in food makers?

McDonald's and Wendy's defeated a lawsuit accusing them of exaggerating the size of their burgers in ads.

World Aquatics established an "open category" for the World Cup swimming event in Berlin after voting to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women's competitions. Nobody signed up.

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